Monday, September 12, 2011
Four Feet
Following Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee, the river was up to six feet this week as reported by www.CacaponInstitute.org. Thanks, Nick, for sharing the link.
By our visit Saturday the river had settled down to four feet, but was still daunting when compared to its serene clarity just one week before. The water temperature changed too, dropping almost ten degrees to around 70 degrees F. It is obvious now why we had been warned of the potential danger posed to the unsuspecting. Nevertheless, we could not spend another beautiful weekend by the water without unleashing the inner-tubes.
The longer of two trips on the first day took us from the Low Water Bridge back home in just over an hour. The same route the week before took over two and a half hours!
Joining us for the adventure was our guest, Paul, who fared well for his first time in a kayak. The trip was not without a reasonable amount of peril, however. One child left at home his life-jacket, causing Paul to nobly give up his. The raging river managed to capsize the kayak, pinning Paul to a tree at the put in. Five minutes downstream the turbulence of a man-made shelf attempted to swallow the boys' rubber boat, resulting in their father losing his car keys during the rescue. If asked, the onlooking walnut trees would probably have described the end as a sort of crash landing given that the kayak capsized again and we overshot the take out by about 200 feet. But fortune was ours, no one was injured, and a good time was had by all. We even recovered the car keys floating along nearby in their protective plastic baggie. (We had overshot the take out on the day's first trip, but apparently had not learned anything from it.)
Momma would join us later that day after working a few extra hours to help pay for her vacation home. She accompanied us for the final river trip, a quick jaunt from the common area to home. At the put in we met Evelyn, a neighbor who enjoys bird-watching and lives "at a fork in the road" nearby. Chatting with her gave me chance to adjust to the chilly water once again.
It was possibly the biggest weekend of cooking yet: egg sandwiches, a pair of roasted chickens, Daddy's Mean Bean Soup, cheeseburgers, chicken soup, pasta salad, and freshly baked bread. Oh, yeah, and one more pan-fried river fish, probably a bass. Naturally the kids tried to talk us into keeping the fish as a pet before their father decapitated and disemboweled it.
Pictured above, like most normal boys their age, our kids enjoy frog catching and reading Harry Potter, respectively. The younger one sports a shiner self-inflicted by a mean old armchair.
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